Merchants, Markets and the State in Early Modern India

Book excerpt: The concepts of "trade," "market," and "state" both divide historians, economists, and anthropologists, and provide a meeting point for discussion in these disciplines. These essays, originally published in the Indian Economic and Social History Review and available now for the first time in a single volume, provide a comprehensive look at the process of economic change in pre-industrial India; the ways in which markets functioned; the role of individuals merchants in the regional societies of India; the position of mercantile communities as agents and victims of change; and the complex relationships between political states and trading communities.